Swamplandia!

I heard about this book when the author, Karen Russell, came to a local bookstore for a signing.  I put the book on my "to read" list and I just got around to reading it!  The book was very different than what I remembered the description to be - but it was very interesting.

Ava Bigtree, 13, comes from a family of Alligator Wrestlers - and has their own theme park, Swamplandia!  Tragedy strikes when Hilola, Ava's mother, dies from ovarian cancer, Grandpa Sawtooth, suffering from dementia/Alzheimer's goes into a nursing home, and tourist numbers steadily decline, and then disappear altogether.  Kiwi, Ava's 18-year-old brother, and self proclaimed genius, runs away to the mainland to get a job and make money to revamp Swamplandia!.  He gets a job at a rival theme park - The World of Darkness - and enrolls in GED classes to pave his way to Harvard. 

Meanwhile, Ava's father, Chief Bigtree, also flees to the mainland to seek investors for Swamplandia!  This leaves Ava and her 16 year old sister Ossie alone to take care of the 98 "Seths" (alligators).  Ava's world continues to fall apart when Ossie becomes obsessed with the afterlife and falls in love with the ghost of Louis Thanksgiving, a 17-year-old canal dredger from the 1930s.  Ossie runs away to marry Louis, and Ava goes after her to save the only member of the family she can.  By saving one, she feels she can slowly but surely put Swamplandia! back on the map and open the park once more to hundreds and thousands of tourists.

The story follows Kiwi's adventures and learning experiences on the Mainland - and his attempts to fit in with the other employees of The World.  And, it follows Ava as she teams up with The Bird Man to find Ossie before she departs this life for an eternity with her dear Louis.

Alligators, ghosts, teen age stupidity, money troubles, crazy family members, and a little bit of history - this book has it all.  Like I said, I thought this book would be about the theme park itself, and Ava's attempts to save it - or her taking it over as an adult.  But this book is more about the individual family members' attempts to save Swamplandia! or themselves as their world crumbles around them.  Even though each of them go their own way, the Chief, Kiwi, Ava, and Ossie find the way back to their family.